Abstract
As in the case of great books in all branches of philosophy, Pierre Duhem’s La Théorie Physique, first published in 1906, can be looked to as the progenitor of many different and even conflicting currents in subsequent philosophy of science. On a superficial reading, it seems to be an expression of what later came to be called deductivist and instrumentalist analyses of scientific theory. Duhem’s very definition of physical theory, put forward early in the book, is the quintessence of instrumentalism:
A physical theory is not an explanation. It is a system of mathematical propositions, deduced from a small number of principles, which aim to represent as simply, as completely, and as exactly as possible a set of experimental laws [p. 19].
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Chomsky, N.: ‘Quine’s Empirical Assumptions’, Synthese 19 (1968), 53.
Duhem, P.: The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory, Princeton, N.J., 1906; trans. Wiener, Oxford, 1954.
Feyerabend, P. K.: ‘Explanation, Reduction and Empiricism’, in Minnesota Studies, III, ed. by H. Feigl and G. Maxwell, Minneapolis, 1962, p. 28.
Grünbaum, A.: Philosophical Problems of Space and Time, New York, 1963.
Grünbaum, A.: ‘The Falsifiability of a Component of a Theoretical System’, in Mind, Matter, and Method, ed. by P. K. Feyerabend and G. Maxwell, Minneapolis, 1966, p. 273.
Hanson, N. R.: Patterns of Discovery, Cambridge, 1958.
Kuhn, T. S.: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago, 1962.
Popper, K. R.: The Logic of Scientific Discovery, London, 1959.
Popper, K. R.: Conjectures and Refutations, London, 1963.
Quine, W. V. O.: From a Logical Point of View, Cambridge, Mass., 1953.
Quine, W. V. O.: Word and Object, New York, 1960.
Quine, W. V. O.: ‘Replies’, Synthese 19 (1968), 264.
Scheffier, I.: Science and Subjectivity, Indianapolis, 1967.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1976 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hesse, M. (1976). Duhem, Quine and A New Empiricism. In: Harding, S.G. (eds) Can Theories be Refuted?. Synthese Library, vol 81. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1863-0_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1863-0_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-277-0630-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-010-1863-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive